point to point wiring

[diy student]

I am about to build an amp and plan to point to point wire it to save money. This is probably a stupid question, but is it o.k. for me to use perfboard or will that harm the sound quality substantially. Finally is there a certain type of perfboard I should use? Are there different types that sound better than others?

Thanks for your help

Rob

 

[Super]

I dont think it should harm anything. Its often used for speaker crossovers, so the only audible differences you might hear would be a part vibrating or rattling if not properly secured. I've never used it in an amplifier before, but I see no reason why it would degrade the sound...

 

[GRollins]

Perfboard will do just fine. I'm not aware of any sonic differences between brands, although you might be able to argue that Teflon would be superior (if anyone makes such a thing).
A word to the wise: Getting a decent layout for point to point wiring is more difficult than it seems. It might be a good idea to make some scratch diagrams to show where everything needs to go. Don't overlook power connection points and all the little sneaky places where ground shows up. A tidy board not only looks better, but will be easier to troubleshoot if something goes wrong.

Grey

 

[tvi]

Have you looked at useing <a href="http://www.web-tronics.com/printed-circuit-board-supplies-fitted-pad-per-hole-pcb-series.html">pad per hole</a> experimenters board?

A quite a few of the projects I've seen in the Japanese magazine MJ use it, particularly Kaneda kits.

Some board pics <a href="http://www.sm.rim.or.jp/~konton/No-139%20seisaku.htm">here</a>)


Regards
James

 

[P.Lacombe]

Perfboard will work fine for audio preamp or buffer, but is perhaps difficult to use for power amps.

It's very important to carefully design ground, power supply and power output rails, otherwise bad things can occur, such as hf instability, unexpected distortions, and other disasters. To prevent this, it's better to use perfboard for drivers stages only, and to connect output devices directly with adequate insulated copper wire, as short as possible.

Regards, P.Lacombe.

 

[paulb]

An alternative you might consider is the perfboard with the parallel copper strips that run the length of the board (I believe Vero and others make these). You use a trace cutter or drill bit to cut the traces where you don't want them. It takes a little planning but can result in a very nice job with minimal wires underneath.
You can also ground the unused traces to get sort of a ground plane approach.

 

[promitheus]

You wont have any problems with this kind of boards. You need to be sure that they are clean before soldering. The ones with copper tend to get rusted after some time. It´s a good idea you clean them before soldering to get a nice clean job done.

 

[diy student]

Thanks for the advice I'll look into the vero board. I don't know too much about all this stuff so you guys really are an invaluble resource.

Rob

 

[JBL]

I once use point to point for a low power amp(15watt or so) it was working very fine, no stability problem or sound degradation. The only drawback is that it take longer(to much for my limited patience).